Guilt and Fear-The Untold story of Zira

Chapter thirty-two: Fuli's point of view

Fuli raced across the pridelands, feeling the cool breeze swiflty make its way through her fur. It was the perfect day for a race against Ono. Fuli looked back up at the sky. She saw Ono behind her. He wasn't far behind her, but it was clear that he was getting tired. Forgetting to look forward again as she continued to run, Fuli didn't see him coming, and felt herself being shoved onto her side, rolling once before being pinned onto her stomach. Ono flew down, laughing as Fuli looked up at her captor.

"You thought you'd race Ono without me, Fuli?" Kion asked playfully.

"You really need to learn how to greet someone other than pouncing on them." Fuli answered. "And yeah. We were honestly racing to the pridelands. And I was in the lead." She rolled over, shoving him off of her. She then noticed something in the gorge. A huge cloud of dust. Kion noticed it, too.

"Ono," he said, still staring at the gorge. "Get dad, Zazu, and the rest of the guard. Fuli, you come with me to see what that is." They both nodded, and while Ono went to get help, Fuli and Kion ran to the gorge.

All you could see was a huge cloud of dust. There was something trampling through the gorge, although Fuli couldn't see it, just being at the ledge next to the gorge, she had a hard time keeping her balance. The ground was shaking. She looked at Kion. He was taking a deep breath.

"Roar!!!" He exclaimed. The gorge shook as the roar of the elders began to clear the dust. Kion only used his roar for desperate times; he didn't know its full potential just yet.

As the dust began to settle for a few moments, Fuli was horrified to see two hyena pups and a lioness. Looking down into the gorge, she saw a ledge close enough to the ledge that the hyenas were on that she could jump across.

"Kion!!!" She exclaimed. "Over here!!!" Her friend looked at her just as she jumped into the gorge.

"Fuli!!!" He yelled

She tumbled onto a ledge above the gorge, and once looking back up at Kion to assure him that she was all right, she looked around for the hyena pups.

All she could see was dust. She felt as though she should probably wait for the rest of the guard or Simba to get here, but she couldn't just stand here while someone else was in trouble. She took a deep breath and jumped to a ledge on the other side of the gorge, where the hyena pups and lioness were spotted last.

"Kion!!" She called up to him. "I can't see two feet in front of me because of this stupid dust!!! Tell me how to get to the pups and lioness!!!"

She couldn't see him, so she only had to hope that he heard her. A few moments passed. The only sounds Fuli heard were the stampeding rhinos, the pups' barking, and the lioness's struggling. But as she couldn't see, she didn't want to try to find them by ear, and risk falling into the stampede. Not long after she called, Kion responded.

"You're not far from them!!! Slowly start walking forward, and stop when I say to stop." Fuli cautiously began to creep forward, inching her paws a bit farther with each step. She heard Kion call again. "Okay, stop!!!" She stopped, awaiting further instruction. "There's a bit of a small chasm between you guys. I want you to jump as far as you can. Take a running start if you need to."

Fuli backed up a bit, then began charging forward again. She hoped that she would be able to jump before her paws left the rock. Hearing Kion, Fuli listened again. "Jump now!!!" She pushed off with her back paws and jumped as far as she could, hoping that she would land on the other side and get closer to the hyena pups.

Her front paws met the other side of the rock, but they soon gave way beneath her, sliding forward so that she could make room for her back paws on the cliff. Ignoring what had just happened, Fuli sprang up to her feet and raced over to the pups, able to see them through the dust. She saw an older male pup struggling to help a younger female up onto the ledge, but as there were no small rocks or holes, and the cliff rock was pretty smooth, the younger pup's back paws were slipping!!!

Fuli joined the older pup's side and tried to pull the younger one up, with the help of the lioness pushing on her back paws to help the pup onto the ledge. While Fuli was pulling on the younger pup, she realised that the lioness didn't have much support on her back paws or claws in the rock. She knew that the lioness wouldn't be able to hold on much longer, and tried to help her, when she recognised something on the top of the lioness's head.

A small stripe on the top of her head and a nick in her ear. Simba had warned the guard about this lioness. Zira. Fuli was so shocked to see this lioness in the pridelands that she didn't notice the rock underneath her cracking. The cliff wasn't strong enough to hold her. At the same time the earth gave way beneath her as she tumbled into the gorge, the older hyena gave one final yank, pulling the younger one up to him. Fuli watched Zira tumble into the gorge as well as the younger hyena pup yelled, "No!!!"

Fuli's impact with the ground sent pain every which way throughout her body, and she struggled to stand. She could see Zira a few feet in front of her, running ahead. Fuli did her best to dodge the rhinos' enormous feet, to avoid getting trampled. Eventually, she got too tired to continue running, and collapsed out of exhaustion. Just as she saw the foot of a rhino about to come down on her, something swiftly grabbed her scruff, weaving its way through the stampede. A red mane flashed around her. King Simba. He leapt out of the gorge and up the ledge, climbing to the top where they met up with Kion, Zazu, and the rest of the guard.

Fuli never told anyone about her encounter with Zira in the pridelands that day, but she couldn't help but wonder: after all these stories she had heard about Zira, why had she gone out of her way to save those hyena pups?